


Dazed Words

by dolfabre



Category: Tales of the Abyss
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Gen, Post-Game(s), Tales of Secret Santa 2017, These two are awkward dorks, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 09:28:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13143801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dolfabre/pseuds/dolfabre
Summary: Luke is sick and Tear's attempting to nurse him back to health. Unfortunately for both of them, Luke can't seem to get his words right.





	Dazed Words

**Author's Note:**

> Dear kole-burner-me on Tumblr, I hope you enjoy this!! I was glad to find out that you also like Luke/Tear and I very happily was able to type this out in the end!! Merry Christmas!!

Snowflakes began to fall, draped against an ink-blue curtain that hung in the sky. Tear always seemed to watch them dance in the sky – like angels in the stories she would often hear about as a child, and like then, she always seemed to watch just as intently as she listed to those stories. Maybe it was growing up in a place where sunlight was almost a myth even if it were fact, never mind the existence of snow. Her fingers pressed against the glass window, a small surge of cold from the outside hitting the gloved tips – but the rest of her was warm enough, sitting beside the windowsill on a chair, her head being propped up by her other hand.

She was busy, enticed by the spells of her own thoughts, her mind just taking in the beauty of the outside of the inn that was now being covered with a blanket of ice-white.

“If you don’t sleep somewhere warm, you’ll get a cold,” a near-silent voice shattered the silence that surrounded the room and her thoughts, with the only given exception being the fire that lightly crackled in the fireplace. It was unexpected enough for the knight to quickly turn towards where the voice had come from, towards the bed in the corner of the room.

Her lips let out a sigh into the warm air that surrounded them both in the inn room, before her heels clicked on the wooden floor – heading in the direction of the bed, where the redheaded noble was laying down. Sitting down on the edge the bed, blue eyes looked towards his own green. “Says the one who has a cold.”

It was almost as if those words were able to summon something to make her point solid, Luke began to cough. His fits of coughs slowed down and ceased after a short moment, and the eyes he knew so well – the eyes looking in his direction – were giving him that ‘my point is proved’ look.

“But… if you get a cold too, for all we know, Jade will have to take care of us,” he muttered, his tone of voice undoubtedly meaning to tease. His hand shifted from by his side, then rested on top of her own. Tear simply accepted this gesture, even if her cheeks were beginning to fluster. “Or maybe Anise..?”

“You were the one who thought walking around without a coat in winter would be a good idea–“ the knight began, before promptly being interrupted by the same muffled, yet stubborn voice as before.

“You didn’t have a coat with you. What kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn’t give you my coat?”

“If I knew, I wouldn’t have accepted your coat.”

“But then you would’ve had the cold, and I would’ve been doing the exact same for you. And I’m pretty sure you’d tell me to make sure I sleep in a warm place, right?”

Damn, he had her there.  “S-shut up…”

Luke gave a warm, yet barely-sounded chuckle in response. Even if his face was flushed, his throat was rather sore, and his thoughts were slightly disorientated compared to usual; he was happy. Just something as simple as this was what made him feel most content. Of course, he felt the same way every moment he was in the fonist’s company, but now… maybe it was the cold – or even the silence that surrounded the two… No, it was definitely the cold – but it didn’t mean that his feelings weren’t genuine. They were as genuine as could be, it was just now that he realised, as he tiredly kept his gaze in her direction.

A thought entered his mind; a thought of three words. A thought he’d tried to push away previously in case it was far too early for him to think this. But he couldn’t muster up the courage to keep on denying it to himself.

_I love you._

Tear froze. Her form had stopped in time, but her heart was beating as the seconds ticked by – perhaps even faster than before. Slowly, her head turned back towards the dazed noble, but it soon became obvious.

“L-Luke, you said that out loud…” she muttered, trying to keep her words from stuttering in anxiety. But somehow her hand under his own didn’t seem to move – it didn’t want to.

Green eyes blinked as a silence followed her statement, before giving a simple, “… ah” in response. He had never really been good at this anyway and it was just his luck to blurt this out completely unannounced. The fact that he was in a completely bemused state probably added to the lack of his reaction – but more so in the respect of him being unable to process what he had just said aloud.

The moment the atmosphere, the strained silence, and his thoughts had caught up to him, he simply blinked before red flooded his usually fairly pale face. “A-ah, I-I’m sorry I didn’t mean to –”

Tear shook her head stubbornly and slightly panicked. “N-no, it’s fine –”

“I didn’t mean to say that aloud – I mean, w-we haven’t really been dating that long and –“

“L-Luke, it’s fine. It’s… fine.” Her interruption fell into a pool of silence, in which both of them were currently drowning – no matter how much either of them tried to fight against in and swim. She sighed under her breath, trying to muster the courage to look towards the man who had just sat up from lying down before her. “Don’t… Don’t worry about it, your cold will get worse if you do. You’re sick, it’s not your fault that you said it out loud…”

Luke sighed in turn, letting his head literally fall back on the pillow as he looked to her. “I… Tear, it’s not fine,” he said, trying to hide his face. “It’s not fine because it’s true. I-it isn’t just a slip of the tongue, I think… I think I love you, Mystearica.”

By this point, his face was as red as his hair in both embarrassment and Tear was just about rivalling it.  It was as if she couldn’t speak, as if time had stopped, as if her body had frozen with the snow falling outside; the words inside of her wanted to speak but she couldn’t give it a voice. As much as she could resonate with what the noble confessed, she just couldn’t seem to find the words.

“W-wait, just because I confessed doesn’t mean you have to! I guess I’m… ready to say it. You can take all the time you need, okay? A-and I mean, you don’t even have to say it at all if you don’t mean –“ Luke began once more, trying his best to remain calm despite his thoughts going at the speed of light.

“B-but I do!”

He stared towards her, a smile curling on the edges of his lips. And soon, a light laugh fell from his mouth. “We’re… really not good at this, are we..?”

The brunette shook her head, hiding her embarrassing smile with the hand that wasn’t underneath his. “W-we’re not… B-but besides the point, you should sleep already!”

His spare hand reached up, gently and delicately patting the hair on her head. And he did so until he couldn’t do so anymore. And it wasn’t long before Tear ended up beside him, sleeping as the fire slowly died out in the fireplace.


End file.
